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A bit of good news from an unexpected source!
	Topic by: larbeck Posted: December 17, 2003 - 11:56 AM PST Last Reply: January 11, 2004 - 1:21 PM PST

author	topic: A bit of good news from an unexpected source!
larbeck	post #1  on December 17, 2003 - 11:56 AM PST   At http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/home_video/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2047010 (and about 12 days ago but I just found it via Slashdot), Blockbuster Inc. president and chief operating officer Nigel Travis on Thursday called for an end to regional coding on DVDs, saying they merely create more opportunities for piracy! I never expected such sanity from them! Now, if only the MPAA and DVD Forum would grow a brain!
hamano	post #2  on December 17, 2003 - 12:07 PM PST   Oh, I thought Bush had another close encounter with a pretzel or something... It will be good news if they put an end to region codes, though!
Eoliano	post #3  on December 17, 2003 - 8:48 PM PST   > It will be good news if they put an end to region codes, though! As they should, considering there have never been regional codes on music CDs. I mean, just look what at what a tizzy the music biz has been in since Napster, not to mention how easy it is to pirate a music CD, and to what avail?
dpowers	post #4  on December 17, 2003 - 10:40 PM PST   instead of region codes, how about popularity encryption. bracket 1... if the last few discs you played didn't gross $100 million total, bracket 1 discs won't play. if you're late for lunch with steven, the movie plays only the good parts. if the director's ever been to a party at your house, the director's commentary tells all the good stuff.
kamapuaa	post #5  on December 18, 2003 - 2:59 PM PST   > As they should, considering there have never been regional codes on music CDs. I mean, just look what at what a tizzy the music biz has been in since Napster, not to mention how easy it is to pirate a music CD, and to what avail? I think it has to do with pricing schemes. European DVDs will often (not always) go for $10. Japanese DVDs will go for $40. Legitimate Chinese DVD's go for $5. If I was a big international consortium (I'm not), I'd want to keep selling the DVDs at $40, not $5. Similarly, if the international DVD price gets set at $20, almost no DVDs would get sold in China. DVDs and CDs aren't sold at fair-market values, or music CDs would sell cheaper than tapes. They're set to what the market can support. So if you squint your eyes the different pricings make sense, even if it isn't capitalism. And region codes are the way it's done. It's kind of a non-issue, anyway. Right now it's very easy to get an International DVD player, and even easier to find imported DVDs. If they get rid of region codes, the main difference would be the pricing schemes would get totally re-written, and maybe subtitles would become more common.
artifex	post #6  on January 11, 2004 - 1:21 PM PST   > On December 17, 2003 - 10:40 PM PST dpowers wrote: > --------------------------------- > instead of region codes, how about popularity encryption. bracket 1... if the last few discs you played didn't gross $100 million total, bracket 1 discs won't play. if you're late for lunch with steven, the movie plays only the good parts. if the director's ever been to a party at your house, the director's commentary tells all the good stuff. > --------------------------------- I'm disappointed you didn't throw in Kevin Bacon numbers. My number is a 2, btw :)